living in a messed up world

to; m/f/nb verse; modern (lmk if you’d prefer badlands)

It wasn’t unusual for visitors to be milling about beyond visiting hours at the hospital, but it was unusual for any of them to make their way to Veil’s part of the building. They would hover around wards and waiting rooms, desperate to hear even a flicker of information about their loved ones, but very few ever ventured towards the prosthesis lab, particularly after it ‘closed’. Which was why, as she was fiddling with some of the fixings on a faulty prosthetic hand, her attention was immediately stolen by someone opening up the door.

Meet Zola Finley, 24 and a ray of (feisty but quiet) sunshine.

“Funny.” Offering Ryder the water bottle that was in his hand, Javier scans the blonde’s body, a slight frown tugging at his lips. As an ER doctor, he was used to all of this, but that didn’t make him feel better when the person sitting in front of him in pain was someone that he cared about. “I’m not staring, I’m assessing. Tell me what hurts.” He half asks, half demands, tilting Ryder’s face up towards his. “Let me help you. Please.”

to; m/f/nb verse; modern plot; Ryder has been fighting in an underground fighting ring. Your muse finds him after a rough fight. Spectator/friends/relationships/anything goes!

“Is this because I missed dinner again?”

He had wanted to be there.  Really, he had.  It was their one year anniversary.  One year since they had met and started this relationship.  And for one year, Ryder had put up with his vanishing and his excuses for only God knew why.

“Because I have a really good explanation this time.  You see, we made it a year so I can finally tell you the truth.”

His heart is pounding in his chest.

“Ryder.  Babe…I miss our dates all the time because I’m Superman.  And you mean so much to me.  You mean so much that I felt I needed to finally tell you who I am.  I love you, Ryder.  You mean the world to me.  Which is why I have to protect it.  For you.”

Ryder had never had much control over his temper, probably courtesy of a rough upbringing by a father with ridiculously high expectations. He’d always been hard on himself, but as he’d grown older and of course, after the kidnapping debacle as a child that had left him with a mangled foot, that frustration had quickly turned into anger at the rest of the world too. Unfortunately, that meant that Jordan tended to get the brunt of it at the best of times.

But he was right, they’d made it to a year. It was the longest relationship Ryder had ever had and... he supposed that meant the other man deserved his patience... and maybe a huge helping of ‘benefit of the doubt’. Something he definitely needed when those words left his mouth.

to; m/f/nb connection; any!

Dante chuckled a bit as the other argued with him. A lot of newcomers felt the same way. Even Dante wasn’t that fond of it at the beginning. Men wanted power. They wanted to beat someone senseless and prove that they were the apex predator. The alpha male. There was so much more to fighting that just striking someone in the face. 

“Yes that’s the whole point, but you don’t wanna be the asshole who gets knocked out. You realize that I’m blind and deaf on one side and I’ve been able to dance circles around you.” Dante said as he reached out and knocked Ryder on the back of the head with his glove. “Think of it like sex. You can’t just pound away. You’ve gotta introduce variation, different movements and positions.”

People didn’t tend to get away with teasing Ryder all that often. He had a short temper at the best of times, a chip on his shoulder he’d never been able to, or even really tried to shake and that ultimately meant that his patience was thin. But there were a few people, people like Dante apparently, who managed to get on the right side of his temper, even when they were knocking him in the back of his head. Rolling his eyes and batting his hand away, he reached for a bottle of water in the same breath. That was until Dante was mentioning sex and he very nearly choked on his sip.

Lydia stayed silent while she led him to the cafe, taking that time to think about exactly what she would say– and how much she would tell him. Once they were seated at a small table, she sipped at her coffee for a minute before she spoke.

“A few weeks before I left, I ran into…an old friend” she began, a little hesitant. “I hadn’t seen her in several years. It was like she just disappeared, and I didn’t know why until recently. She was– still is, technically –married to your father’s new business partner. He cut her off from everyone, made her quit her job…the way he treats her, it’s not right.” Lydia slowly shook her head while she spoke, looking away for a minute, then looking across the table at her son again.

“The decision to leave, it wasn’t planned. There was an opportunity, and we took it. I had to get her away from him before he hurt her even worse than he already was…” She hoped Ryder would understand. “I would have said something to you first if I had the chance.” That was her one regret, that she hadn’t been able to explain to him before leaving.

Hands clutched around the hot cup in his hand, Ryder’s eyebrows were knotted in what may as well have been a permanant state of confusion as Lydia explained. All this time, all the days wondering why she’d just upped and left without explaining anything, without bothering to say goodbye, and this was the reason? Ryder knew better than anyone of his father’s cruelty and the cruelty of the people he chose to let into his life, but...

“So, you left...” he started slowly, head tilting to the side, eyes squinting with confusion as he tried to wrap his head around what he was being told, “Because a friend was in an abusive relationship. You left because they needed to run. Which leads me to think there was more to it than that.”

Trixie knew things weren’t so simple with Ryder, feeling that he was set in his ways and behaviors, but she knew there things she wanted out of a partner at the same time. She could see a smile forming on his lips and she wanted to see a full grin, something so incredibly attractive on him. “I’m just saying, there’s things that I want, too,” she explained, “And I know how you are, but sometimes I’m going to want a hug, or some for of affection. I really enjoy that.” She cleared her throat and looked down for a moment, before lifting her gaze to his once again. “Hypothetically, I want more with you and that means you have to be willing to meet me halfway. I want you to take one for the team for me.”